DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, chose to drive an additional 7,000 auto union members off the assembly lines and onto the picket lines to join the thousands already on strike. 

After more than a 20 minute delay to the announcement, Fain revealed that there had been some last minute negotiations, later revealing Stellantis had come to the bargaining table with new proposals, and that there would be no additional strike members activated at Stellantis plants. 

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“Moments before this broadcast, Stellantis made significant progress on the 2009 cost of living allowance, the right not to cross a picket line, as well as the right to strike over product commitments and plant closures and outsourcing moratoriums,” Fain said. “We are excited about this momentum at Stellantis and hope it continues.” 

The UAW President also activated more strikers to join the already 18,000 striking UAW picketing members across 41 facilities and 21 states. 

“I’m calling on an additional 7,000 members across Ford and GM to go on strike starting at noon eastern today,” Fain said, “I‘m calling on Ford’s Chicago Assembly plant to stand up and go on strike, and I’m calling on Gm’s Lansing – Delta Township to stand up and go out on strike.”

Fain added that another prominent Lansing location would be still working,“Let me be clear this is important, Lansing regional stamping will continue working, our courageous workers at these two plants are the next wave of reinforcements in our fight for record contracts,” he said. 

He also called attention to the violence that striking Union Members have been reportedly experiencing on the picket lines. 

“We’ve heard of multiple instances from California to Michigan to Massachusetts of violence against our picketers, from people crossing our picket line,” Fain said. “We’ve had guns pulled on us, trucks and cars ram through us, and violent threats hurled at us, and I want to be absolutely clear: we will not be intimidated into backing down, by the companies or their scabs; our cause is just.” 

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Fain reinvited the public in support of the cause to join the union, after inviting Americans across the country, including President Biden to join in the fight, who visited a Michigan picket line on Tuesday. 

“You deserve what you earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you get paid now,” President Biden said to a crowd of UAW strikers. 

Governor Gretchen Whitmer voiced her gratitude for President Biden’s investments in auto jobs, but did not join him and UAW President Fain on the picket line.